Maximize your downtime

In the race to streamline healthcare efficiencies, both Nelson and Woodcock agree that physician practices of all sizes should incorporate wireless headsets for voice communication as a baseline for their high-tech arsenals. Doctors en route between the office and the hospital can use that downtime to answer phone calls, consult with staff, or schedule appointments hands-free — an increasingly important capability to have as more and more states crack down on unsafe cell phone usage in cars.

Woodcock adds that in the office, wireless headsets give staff more flexibility to multitask. “The greatest opportunity with mobile headsets is that you can have a staff member working in medical records or scanning documents and still acting as the operator without physically having to sit there,” she explains.

Plantronics in Santa Cruz, Calif., markets a collection of wireless headsets with noise-canceling features that fit over users’ heads or around their ears for $20 to $420 each. One nice feature these headsets possess is the ability to switch seamlessly between an office phone and a voice-enabled Bluetooth mobile phone. Consider the Voyager 510SL Bluetooth headset, which retails for roughly $290; GN Netcom’s 6210 Bluetooth wireless headset will set you back about $235.

All EMRs are not created equal

For Gill Holland, a solo practitioner in Chandler, Ariz., it’s not a gadget, but rather a software solution that gets his highest marks for being one of the most affordable and versatile high-tech solutions for smaller practices.

After investing nearly $70,000 to implement a complex EMR system and then spending thousands more in maintenance fees, Holland scrapped it shortly after making the purchase. He turned to a lower-cost alternative called Amazing Charts. This scaled-back EMR software package, designed by a practicing family physician, does away with bells and whistles to provide only the services that solo practices and small medical groups require. It enables electronic scheduling, intra-office messaging, e-mail, and digital patient documentation.

“We started off with a much more expensive EMR and scheduler that didn’t do nearly as much as this one, and we abandoned it,” says Holland. “It was costing us too much money, had too many technical issues, and it was billing incorrectly, so our interfaces kept going down.”

A solo practitioner can purchase Amazing Charts for $995; group practices pay $200 more for each additional provider. The company makes its technical support staff available for another $500 a year for the first provider, adding $100 a year for each additional provider.

Shelly K. Schwartz is a freelance writer in Maplewood, N.J., who has covered personal finance, technology, and healthcare for 12 years. Her work has appeared on money.cnn.com and Bankrate.com and in Healthy Family magazine. She can be reached via editor@physicianspractice.com.